1. Technical Field
The present embodiments relate to networks and network devices.
2. Related Art
Networking systems are commonly used to move network information (which may also be referred to interchangeably, as frames, packets or commands) between computing systems (for example, servers) or between computing systems and network devices (for example, storage systems). Various hardware and software components are used to implement network communication. A network switch is typically a multi-port network device where each port manages a point-to-point connection between itself and an attached system. Each port can be attached to a server, peripheral, input/output subsystem, bridge, hub, router, or another switch, where each of the aforementioned network devices also has one or more ports.
A network switch typically receives data packets and forwards the packets to their destinations. The packets are stored temporarily in buffers (storage locations) before being forwarded to the next destination. Each buffer includes a number of receive queues. A typical network switch has a fixed number of receive queues, each with a fixed size. This arrangement does not allow for efficient use of receive buffers.